Jury sees footage before fatal fight

UPDATE: A Mackay jury of seven women and five men has seen CCTV footage of a brief altercation between two men outside the NightOwl Convenience Store on the night of a fatal fight in River Street.

Two men were alleged to be involved in an incident outside the NightOwl in Victoria Street which later escalated to a fight involving them swinging a fence paling and a golf club at each other in River Street.

Matthew Thatcher, 24, of Charters Towers, has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court in Mackay to murdering 25-year-old Chris Pawelczak in River Street on October 24, 2009.

The NightOwl CCTV footage was watched by the jurors in silence – there was no audio recording to go with it.

The jurors have also seen the fence paling and golf club involved in the incident.

And they have been shown “time lines” recording the known movements of both men during the night of the fatality.

The trial is now in its second day and it is expected to go three or four days and it will continue next week.